DATE: Monday April 18, 2016
TIME: 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
LED BY: Jaime Pawelek, UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, www.helpabee.org
LOCATION: A private home in Novato (to be provided to registered attendees)
California is home to 1,600 species of native bees. Most are solitary in nature, do not build hives, and do not produce honey for human consumption. However, they are critical to the functioning of our ecosystem.Join Project Manager Jaime Pawelek of the Urban Bee Lab at UC Berkeley for an informal walk through a wildlife habitat garden. We will be looking for the native bee pollinators that visit or live in the gardens and learning what roles they play in the ecosystem. Jaime will discuss the importance of native bees, their habitat needs, and what you can do to encourage them to become residents in your own garden. The Urban Bee Lab at UC Berkeley has been working since 1987 on documenting bee diversity and bee frequencies on wild California plants in several northern California sites. They have found that the bees have definite preferences for plants and that certain bee groups can be expected to forage for pollen and nectar on certain plants, and at certain frequencies, regardless of whether the plants are native or exotic to California. The Lab is using this information to create an experimental bee garden with the most preferred plants on the UC Berkeley campus.
Appropriate for what ages: 12 years and older
Attendees should wear: The terrain can be somewhat uneven. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes and clothing.
Attendees should bring: Hat, water, sunscreen, camera, close-focus binoculars and/or a hand lens if you have them
CNPS will supply: Reference books to browse and also some titles to purchase
The event is free but preregistration is required. Maximum number of attendees: 20.
REGISTER HERE.
Directions: The address and driving directions will be provided upon registration.
